The satellite in this article weighs "4.2 tons" (not tonnes.)
Metric tons?· Should I assume it's all about·SI even though it's not spelled tonne?·
Furthermore, why didn't they express it as megagrams (megagrammes)?
That·is the vaunted advantage of the metric system, the "half a gram is·five-hundred thousand·micrograms and that's why ounces and inches are so stupid" bit, right?
We have our own customary measures and our own spellings for many words, too.··Vive la difference, etrangers.
"because 3x10^9 came much later."? At least Your honest!
Most Canadians live on the broader of the USA. I think its because they feel safer.If France boarded the US They would not have made the 2nd most concurred nation.
One Last thing;Deodorant; Is this just a USA thing? Is it cool to Be stinky out side of the USA?
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The Truth is out there············___$WMc%___···························· BoogerWoods, FL. USA
PJ Allen said...
That·is the vaunted advantage of the metric system, the "half a gram is·five-hundred thousand·micrograms and that's why ounces and inches are so stupid" bit, right?
We have our own customary measures and our own spellings for many words, too.··Vive la difference, etrangers.
The advantage is that to go up and down the scales, you just move the decimal point. Also the scales are 'interconnected'.
How many feet are there in a yard? or a mile?
And how does that relate to inches?
(Yes, I know the numbers... )
And when you get to fractions of an inch. Sure, I know how small a 1/64" is, but...
What if it's smaller than that?
In the Metric system there 1meter, which if split in 10 gives centimeter, or if divided by 1000, you get millimeter.
Multiplyby 1000 and you get a Kilometer.
Same with weights, centering about the gram, or volume using litre.
Now, the American way of measuring cable, THAT has me mystified...
Here we measure the crossectional area. (A 10Amp AC line is usually 1.5mm square wires.)
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Don't visit my new website...
If it's smaller, then it's smaller; so, use a bigger number in the denominator,·I guess?· Am I here?
Move the decimal point.· Honestly.· What use is a comparison of inches·and miles beyond some·rhetorical device?· I understand these relationships as well as, if not better than,·the next guy --·big, little, greater, lesser, OK, I got it already.·
I don't see the problem.
....The advantage is that to go up and down the scales, you just move the decimal point. Also the scales are 'interconnected'....
Granted, decimalization is easier to use. But why haven't all of the non-Americans of the world led the way toward switching to decimal times scales, too? Why isn't the European day sliced up into 100 segments or 10 or 1000? Eh? Why are you still idiotically clinging to that age-old system of 60/60/24/7/30/12? And let's face it: as soon as you have to mix metric units with any sort of time scale, your precious decimalization system drops into the same stinky toilet as inches and feet.
Why not bash languages while we're at it? Why doesn't everyone learn one language and chuck all these other silly modes of doing business? It causes so much confusion, you know. Human language is so full of all kinds of idioms and moronic expressions. I think the reluctance to change anything is simply human nature. And I don't worry so much about units as I do other things that seem to resist change in this world: greed, violence, stupidity. (deep sigh)
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Watching the world pass me by, one photon at a time.
The main reason for going metric is that if you have more than one system of measurement, and want to standardize on one system why not use the one with the most consistent and logical structure.
The main reasons for not changing timekeeping to metric are that the whole world already uses the 60/60/24/7 setup for timekeeping, and that a large number of scientific measurements/values are based on the second. No real gain for doing this.
On the other hand changing from 12 months with a variable number of days to a more logical system would be a good idea. Having 13 months, each with 28 days, New Years day and Leap day as independent days not belonging to any month or week would make a lot of sense.
Of course every month would have to have at least one long weekend.
The whole issue with "decimilization" is a non-issue. Converting from meters to kilometers is easy because they are both the same units - meters - but with a different exponent thrown on the number.
It's a piece of cake to work with imperial units like inches or feet - just don't mix them. If you want to work in inches, either use bigger numbers or use the appropriate prefix. There's nothing wrong with saying 1000 inches = 1 Kinch. It's just like saying 1000 parrots = 1 Kparrot. Although these are not typically used with most imperial measurements, they are very common in some cases. For example pressure (and other quantities) is measured in psi (pounds-force / square inch) but also specified as KSI (1000 psi), MSI (10^6 psi), etc. It's used exactly the way you'd use Pa, KPa, and MPa in SI units.
I was in grade school when the US was officially switching over to metric - it happened in the mid 70's for those who weren't watching. They spent a lot of time in school teaching us to work with the metric system. For most day to day things (and engineering stuff) I can switch back and forth pretty easily.
Just don't get me started on pounds-force vs. pounds-mass (everyone knows the correct unit for mass is slugs).
Edit:
By the way, the benefit I see to using Fahrenheit is that one Fahrenheit degree represents a smaller change in temperature than one Celsius degree making day-to-day temperature specifications (where you'd probably just use integer values) theoretically more accurate. Either way, neither system is calibrated correctly to work with a nice conversion from absolute temperature (Kelvin or Rankine) - both have a non-integer offset.
Just don't get me started on pounds-force vs. pounds-mass (everyone knows the correct unit for mass is slugs).
....
When it comes to doing anything in engineering, my own experience is to convert everything to metric, complete the calculations in metric, then convert everything in the end to non-metric if that is what's required. It's an insane waste of time to try to make sense of slugs, etc. Nobody has a feel for slugs, so you don't even have the benefit of intuition when dealing with units like that. My intuition is mostly non-metrically based but... slugs??? Who grows up with a concept like slugs?
I was in 2nd grade when the US tried to get everyone to learn metric. I was a fairly smart kid but for some reason it seemed impossible to really pick up the metric system because it simply was not part of my daily life, so I've always been a fast converter. For science and engineering, the metric system is superior. But for everyday living, you use what you're around. I suppose it's why the Norwegians still speak Norwegian and not Swedish. I suppose one of these days we'll all be using the metric system and speaking Chinese, but until then.... "Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes."
ElectricAye said...
Nobody has a feel for slugs, ...
Actually, here in the Pacific Northwest, we hold certain slugs in high regard. The banana slug, in particular, plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem.
ElectricAye said...
It's an insane waste of time to try to make sense of slugs, etc. Nobody has a feel for slugs, so you don't even have the benefit of intuition when dealing with units like that. My intuition is mostly non-metrically based but... slugs??? Who grows up with a concept like slugs?
I would argue (not that I'm arguing) that having a feel for slugs is no different than having a feel for Newtons. I have a very good feel for what a pound-force is in every day life (much more so than a pound mass) and I know its "equivalence" to slugs on the face of the earth. If you have a feeling for pound-force, you pretty much have a feeling for slugs.
Most people who think they are familiar with kilograms in day to day life are not actually familiar with kilograms. They are familiar with the weight of a kilogram on the surface of the earth - so when they think kg, the quantity they are really "measuring" is 9.8 N.
I don't see much difference between these relations:
1 N = 1 kg m / sec^2
1 lbf = 1 slug ft / sec^2
As I said before, I don't have a problem using either system or going back and forth between them (I am an American, by the way). I'm in a field of engineering that has a long history of design and data in imperial units so things like slugs are no problem - as long as we keep the physicists with their pounds-mass away. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
schill said...
....
I would argue (not that I'm arguing) that having a feel for slugs is no different than having a feel for Newtons. ...
A Newton is about the same force as the weight of an apple on earth. So when I want to have a feel for how much thrust, say, the Apollo 11 rocket had, I merely imagine 32 million apples pouring down from that rocket's first stage.
Slugs? Man, I don't even want to touch a slug let alone eat one. I'll take an apple any day. It keeps the doctors away. Doctors, apparently, are anti-gravity.
Actually, here in the Pacific Northwest, we hold certain slugs in high regard.....
-Phil
I hold slugs in high regard, too. But I still refuse to touch one. However, I did almost eat one once upon a time. My wife and I were camping in Washington State's Emerald Forest and had one climb into our cooking bowl, sliming it with its transportation lubricant that I suppose doubles as an external digestive system. My biggest question: why do so many of them look like they have a little pine cone stuck in their rear??? Is that to keep the birds laughing so hard they can't possibly eat them?
And I have to wonder: Had Newton witnessed a slug fall from a tree instead of an apple, where would we be today?
I keep thinking how much better off we would be if Newton had not 'Invented' Inertia & Gravity!!!!
My 2 cents worth about metrics..It is easier to do 10's in your head, but just think what would happen to the Brits if they had to score Cricket in metric!!!
I have been looking fopr 2 days for a picture I took on my last trip to to the UK (10 years ago), but could not find it.
It was·2 road signs, next to each other, on the Motorway...one said 'Speed Limit 70 MPH' and the other said 'Next Exit 1500 Meters'...they need to decide soon!!!
Guess I'll throw in my USD$.02. I am an American (*ducks*) who grew up in the 1960's when everything was "American Imperial". However, having pursued a math-science curriculum, and being an engineer, I am pretty comfortable with the metric system as well. To me, both have their advantages and disadvantages, and it's nice to have two systems to choose from. Usually, I prefer whichever is more accurate. So I prefer Fahrenheit degrees to Celsius (Centigrade in my day, young'un) degrees, feet to meters, and pounds to kilograms. However, I also prefer cm and mm to inches (especially those horrid 1/(2^n) values), grams to ounces, and ml to fluid ounces, tablespoons, pints, et. al.. As for conversions, well, that's what the good Lord made pocket calculators for. ·· Anyway, as another poster said, "viva le difference!".
One place where the two systems definitely collide is in circuit board layout. Some components have a 0.1" (or 0.156", or 0.2", ...) pitch between pins; others have pitches spec'd in metric units. There's almost never a case anymore when components from both camps are not mixed on one board, making it impossible for everything to be "on grid". Fortunately, my PCB CAD software lets me swap back and forth between measurement systems just by tapping the "U" (units) key. Otherwise, things would get really complicated in a hurry. But I agree with Beanie2K: each system has its place, and the ubiquity of pocket calculators helps to keep it all manageable.
It is a bit longer than the British Mile. It is the unit of distance of 1 minute of arc measured at the equator around the earth. So, there is 60 minutes in a degree, so a degree of longitude and a degree of lattitude are 60NM at the equator. So the earths circumference is 360 x 60 = 21,600NM.
Now, a minute of latitude is always 1NM, but as you progress north or south from the equator, a minute of longitude gets smaller (because the circumference at lower latitudes is smaller).
Where does this get us. I have a catamaran that we live on (well part-time currently). When we sailed that up and down the east coast of Australia, it was easy to estimate the distance to go... Just take the current latitude and the latitude of the destination, calculate how many degrees and minutes, convert to minutes and that is the number of NM north or south. Look at the angle off north/south and estimate the extra. Easy as. We average about 6 knots (6NM per hour) so easy to calculate a rough time.
A little tid bit of info... When they GPS'd the earth in the 80's, they found Hawaii was about 500 yards (another measurement) out of place. How did they find it without GPS??? Easy, the saw it when they got close... but what if visibility was poor... oops, aground!!!
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Here's the thing - there is no logic behind the metric system:
Meter: designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole along the Paris Meridian.
Liter: one kilogram of pure water at 4°C and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure
kilogram: defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram
What??? The only claim to logic is that it's base ten. big whup... Different bases shouldn't scare computer people.
The imperial system is intuitive and based around things and sizes I understand:
Foot: About the size of my foot
Cup: a teacup full of liquid
Inch: size of my thumb
Pound: A loaf of bread or 2 potatoes.
It's not precise to the micron, but I don't need it to be. I just need to know a pint of milk works for lunch. 10 pounds of food will make 20 servings, etc.
To conclude: I hate Metric as much as I hate Torx.
I don't quite remember when Canada went metric, but my dad used imperial measurement and I was taught metric in school....talk about confusing a kid.
So today, if it's freezing, it's in Celsius...if it's hot, it's in Farenheit!
If it's less than a foot, it's inches and fractions...if it's bigger than 3feet it's yards and meters!! haha
2liters is a big bottle of pop....but I prefer a pint of black&tan (a quart means I'm walking home!).
We've got a new engineer at work and he has to convert cm's for me....from school, I recall a 30cm ruler is very close to 12inches....but what's 3mm's? 1/16"? crazy and confusing....
Unfortunately, being in so close to the US (thanks for the buffalo wings) we have to double up on a number of tools (so it costs us more!)....allen keys, box wrenches....
What you "yanks" are really missing is the robbie screw!! Built in Canada and the only way to build! [noparse];)[/noparse]
Oh ya, for the weight conscious....a "stone" is a nicer way to tell people how much you weigh!
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What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!
Robertson is the best screwdriver(Square drive) however as you said it does not come in to small of sizes. it does not strip out easy. head will hold screw on the end, allows high torq, and self centering.
@ Nick, I have to take issue with your statement that " there is no logic behind the metric system"
>> Meter: designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole along the Paris Meridian.
This may be an arbitrary choice, but so is your foot or some king's foot. And what do we use as a standard after your departure?
>> Liter: one kilogram of pure water at 4°C and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure
One liter is a volume of 1000 cubic centimeters or a cube of 10x10x10 centimeters thereby relating it to the meter.
>> kilogram: defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram
Say what? A gram is the weight of one cubic centimeter of pure water at 4 degrees Celsius, which makes a kilogram the weight of 1 liter of pure water at 4 degrees celsius.
In addition 0 degrees Celsius is the freezing point, and 100 degrees Celsius the boiling point of pure water at 760 millimetres of mercury pressure (nominally 1 atmosphere at sea level).
>> What??? The only claim to logic is that it's base ten. big whup... Different bases shouldn't scare computer people.
>> The imperial system is intuitive and based around things and sizes I understand:
The key phrase here is "based around things and sizes I understand". In my opinion the fact that metric is based on the decimal system by itself makes it superior and once you understand the basics it only becomes more so.
But why are we still cramming 360 degrees into one circle?
And why isn't the speed of light a unit of some sort?
Does our system of time measurement really have to revolve around the sun and so forth? Isn't that sun and moon business a bit antiquated in this day and age?
If we mostly had 11 fingers instead of 10, would the metric system still be as elegant as it is today?
>> But why are we still cramming 360 degrees into one circle?
Tradition, and the only alternative is radians which only seems to be used in electrical and mathematics fields.
>> And why isn't the speed of light a unit of some sort?
It's called c or C, as in E=MCsquared and is the speed of light in vacuum.
>> Does our system of time measurement really have to revolve around the sun and so forth? Isn't that sun and moon business a bit >> antiquated in this day and age?
What should we base it on? The orbital period of Uranus perhaps?
>> If we mostly had 11 fingers instead of 10, would the metric system still be as elegant as it is today?
Maybe it would be based on the number of fingers of one hand, so base 5 or 6. Better if we had 8 fingers so we could use octal.
Comments
Metric tons?· Should I assume it's all about·SI even though it's not spelled tonne?·
Furthermore, why didn't they express it as megagrams (megagrammes)?
That·is the vaunted advantage of the metric system, the "half a gram is·five-hundred thousand·micrograms and that's why ounces and inches are so stupid" bit, right?
We have our own customary measures and our own spellings for many words, too.··Vive la difference, etrangers.
Most Canadians live on the broader of the USA. I think its because they feel safer.If France boarded the US They would not have made the 2nd most concurred nation.
One Last thing;Deodorant; Is this just a USA thing? Is it cool to Be stinky out side of the USA?
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The Truth is out there············___$WMc%___···························· BoogerWoods, FL. USA
How many feet are there in a yard? or a mile?
And how does that relate to inches?
(Yes, I know the numbers... )
And when you get to fractions of an inch. Sure, I know how small a 1/64" is, but...
What if it's smaller than that?
In the Metric system there 1meter, which if split in 10 gives centimeter, or if divided by 1000, you get millimeter.
Multiplyby 1000 and you get a Kilometer.
Same with weights, centering about the gram, or volume using litre.
Now, the American way of measuring cable, THAT has me mystified...
Here we measure the crossectional area. (A 10Amp AC line is usually 1.5mm square wires.)
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Don't visit my new website...
Move the decimal point.· Honestly.· What use is a comparison of inches·and miles beyond some·rhetorical device?· I understand these relationships as well as, if not better than,·the next guy --·big, little, greater, lesser, OK, I got it already.·
I don't see the problem.
I live in the good old U.S.A,
I Have Lots of tools "English" and "Metric"
But what I think are the strangest, when you think about them, are my metric socket wrench sets.
Why do I think these metric socket wrench sets are strange or weird?
It's because they are 1/4", 1/2" & 3/4" drive.
They are truly "Metrics For Americans"
Granted, decimalization is easier to use. But why haven't all of the non-Americans of the world led the way toward switching to decimal times scales, too? Why isn't the European day sliced up into 100 segments or 10 or 1000? Eh? Why are you still idiotically clinging to that age-old system of 60/60/24/7/30/12? And let's face it: as soon as you have to mix metric units with any sort of time scale, your precious decimalization system drops into the same stinky toilet as inches and feet.
Why not bash languages while we're at it? Why doesn't everyone learn one language and chuck all these other silly modes of doing business? It causes so much confusion, you know. Human language is so full of all kinds of idioms and moronic expressions. I think the reluctance to change anything is simply human nature. And I don't worry so much about units as I do other things that seem to resist change in this world: greed, violence, stupidity. (deep sigh)
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Watching the world pass me by, one photon at a time.
My parents just sellibrated there 1Gs anniversary. Well I was the only one that cared.
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map
The main reasons for not changing timekeeping to metric are that the whole world already uses the 60/60/24/7 setup for timekeeping, and that a large number of scientific measurements/values are based on the second. No real gain for doing this.
On the other hand changing from 12 months with a variable number of days to a more logical system would be a good idea. Having 13 months, each with 28 days, New Years day and Leap day as independent days not belonging to any month or week would make a lot of sense.
Of course every month would have to have at least one long weekend.
It's a piece of cake to work with imperial units like inches or feet - just don't mix them. If you want to work in inches, either use bigger numbers or use the appropriate prefix. There's nothing wrong with saying 1000 inches = 1 Kinch. It's just like saying 1000 parrots = 1 Kparrot. Although these are not typically used with most imperial measurements, they are very common in some cases. For example pressure (and other quantities) is measured in psi (pounds-force / square inch) but also specified as KSI (1000 psi), MSI (10^6 psi), etc. It's used exactly the way you'd use Pa, KPa, and MPa in SI units.
I was in grade school when the US was officially switching over to metric - it happened in the mid 70's for those who weren't watching. They spent a lot of time in school teaching us to work with the metric system. For most day to day things (and engineering stuff) I can switch back and forth pretty easily.
Just don't get me started on pounds-force vs. pounds-mass (everyone knows the correct unit for mass is slugs).
Edit:
By the way, the benefit I see to using Fahrenheit is that one Fahrenheit degree represents a smaller change in temperature than one Celsius degree making day-to-day temperature specifications (where you'd probably just use integer values) theoretically more accurate. Either way, neither system is calibrated correctly to work with a nice conversion from absolute temperature (Kelvin or Rankine) - both have a non-integer offset.
Post Edited (schill) : 2/3/2010 11:29:36 PM GMT
When it comes to doing anything in engineering, my own experience is to convert everything to metric, complete the calculations in metric, then convert everything in the end to non-metric if that is what's required. It's an insane waste of time to try to make sense of slugs, etc. Nobody has a feel for slugs, so you don't even have the benefit of intuition when dealing with units like that. My intuition is mostly non-metrically based but... slugs??? Who grows up with a concept like slugs?
I was in 2nd grade when the US tried to get everyone to learn metric. I was a fairly smart kid but for some reason it seemed impossible to really pick up the metric system because it simply was not part of my daily life, so I've always been a fast converter. For science and engineering, the metric system is superior. But for everyday living, you use what you're around. I suppose it's why the Norwegians still speak Norwegian and not Swedish. I suppose one of these days we'll all be using the metric system and speaking Chinese, but until then.... "Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes."
-Phil
I would argue (not that I'm arguing) that having a feel for slugs is no different than having a feel for Newtons. I have a very good feel for what a pound-force is in every day life (much more so than a pound mass) and I know its "equivalence" to slugs on the face of the earth. If you have a feeling for pound-force, you pretty much have a feeling for slugs.
Most people who think they are familiar with kilograms in day to day life are not actually familiar with kilograms. They are familiar with the weight of a kilogram on the surface of the earth - so when they think kg, the quantity they are really "measuring" is 9.8 N.
I don't see much difference between these relations:
1 N = 1 kg m / sec^2
1 lbf = 1 slug ft / sec^2
As I said before, I don't have a problem using either system or going back and forth between them (I am an American, by the way). I'm in a field of engineering that has a long history of design and data in imperial units so things like slugs are no problem - as long as we keep the physicists with their pounds-mass away. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
A Newton is about the same force as the weight of an apple on earth. So when I want to have a feel for how much thrust, say, the Apollo 11 rocket had, I merely imagine 32 million apples pouring down from that rocket's first stage.
Slugs? Man, I don't even want to touch a slug let alone eat one. I'll take an apple any day. It keeps the doctors away. Doctors, apparently, are anti-gravity.
I hold slugs in high regard, too. But I still refuse to touch one. However, I did almost eat one once upon a time. My wife and I were camping in Washington State's Emerald Forest and had one climb into our cooking bowl, sliming it with its transportation lubricant that I suppose doubles as an external digestive system. My biggest question: why do so many of them look like they have a little pine cone stuck in their rear??? Is that to keep the birds laughing so hard they can't possibly eat them?
And I have to wonder: Had Newton witnessed a slug fall from a tree instead of an apple, where would we be today?
My 2 cents worth about metrics..It is easier to do 10's in your head, but just think what would happen to the Brits if they had to score Cricket in metric!!!
I have been looking fopr 2 days for a picture I took on my last trip to to the UK (10 years ago), but could not find it.
It was·2 road signs, next to each other, on the Motorway...one said 'Speed Limit 70 MPH' and the other said 'Next Exit 1500 Meters'...they need to decide soon!!!
Thanks,
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Alan Bradford ·N1YMQ
Plasma Technologies
Canaan NH 03741
www.plasmatechnologies.com
Not a lot of difference. They'd only win the ashes every 10 years instead..
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
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- Tony
http://zuzebox.wordpress.com/
You can't rush these things [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Life may be "too short", but it's the longest thing we ever do.
1 inch is about 25mm
1 yard is about 1 meter
1 km is about half a mile
1 liter is about a quart
1 tsp is about 5 ml
1 kg is about 2 lbs
I rarely need more than that. If I do, well, I have my handy-dandy slide rule!
--Rich
Post Edited (Beanie2k) : 2/9/2010 4:23:24 AM GMT
-Phil
It is a bit longer than the British Mile. It is the unit of distance of 1 minute of arc measured at the equator around the earth. So, there is 60 minutes in a degree, so a degree of longitude and a degree of lattitude are 60NM at the equator. So the earths circumference is 360 x 60 = 21,600NM.
Now, a minute of latitude is always 1NM, but as you progress north or south from the equator, a minute of longitude gets smaller (because the circumference at lower latitudes is smaller).
Where does this get us. I have a catamaran that we live on (well part-time currently). When we sailed that up and down the east coast of Australia, it was easy to estimate the distance to go... Just take the current latitude and the latitude of the destination, calculate how many degrees and minutes, convert to minutes and that is the number of NM north or south. Look at the angle off north/south and estimate the extra. Easy as. We average about 6 knots (6NM per hour) so easy to calculate a rough time.
A little tid bit of info... When they GPS'd the earth in the 80's, they found Hawaii was about 500 yards (another measurement) out of place. How did they find it without GPS??? Easy, the saw it when they got close... but what if visibility was poor... oops, aground!!!
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
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Meter: designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole along the Paris Meridian.
Liter: one kilogram of pure water at 4°C and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure
kilogram: defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram
What??? The only claim to logic is that it's base ten. big whup... Different bases shouldn't scare computer people.
The imperial system is intuitive and based around things and sizes I understand:
Foot: About the size of my foot
Cup: a teacup full of liquid
Inch: size of my thumb
Pound: A loaf of bread or 2 potatoes.
It's not precise to the micron, but I don't need it to be. I just need to know a pint of milk works for lunch. 10 pounds of food will make 20 servings, etc.
To conclude: I hate Metric as much as I hate Torx.
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1. Slotted: Bit slides out too easily.
2. Allen: Bit gets rounded off in high-torque situations.
3. Philips: Bit cams out in high torque situations. (It was designed to do this to prevent overtightening.)
4. Pozidrive, Reed and Prince: These are okay. They're like Philips, but without the cam-out "feature".
5. Square drive: These are okay, too, but I've never seen one in a #4 or smaller fastener (which is what I mostly use).
There are others but, unless you're building public toilet stalls or other vandalism targets, there's little point in considering them.
These days, any good hardware store should carry Torx drivers, and most bit sets include them.
-Phil
So today, if it's freezing, it's in Celsius...if it's hot, it's in Farenheit!
If it's less than a foot, it's inches and fractions...if it's bigger than 3feet it's yards and meters!! haha
2liters is a big bottle of pop....but I prefer a pint of black&tan (a quart means I'm walking home!).
We've got a new engineer at work and he has to convert cm's for me....from school, I recall a 30cm ruler is very close to 12inches....but what's 3mm's? 1/16"? crazy and confusing....
Unfortunately, being in so close to the US (thanks for the buffalo wings) we have to double up on a number of tools (so it costs us more!)....allen keys, box wrenches....
What you "yanks" are really missing is the robbie screw!! Built in Canada and the only way to build! [noparse];)[/noparse]
Oh ya, for the weight conscious....a "stone" is a nicer way to tell people how much you weigh!
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<FONT>Steve
What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!
Post Edited (steve_b) : 2/17/2010 11:18:30 AM GMT
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map
>> Meter: designed to represent one ten-millionth of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole along the Paris Meridian.
This may be an arbitrary choice, but so is your foot or some king's foot. And what do we use as a standard after your departure?
>> Liter: one kilogram of pure water at 4°C and 760 millimetres of mercury pressure
One liter is a volume of 1000 cubic centimeters or a cube of 10x10x10 centimeters thereby relating it to the meter.
>> kilogram: defined as being equal to the mass of the International Prototype Kilogram
Say what? A gram is the weight of one cubic centimeter of pure water at 4 degrees Celsius, which makes a kilogram the weight of 1 liter of pure water at 4 degrees celsius.
In addition 0 degrees Celsius is the freezing point, and 100 degrees Celsius the boiling point of pure water at 760 millimetres of mercury pressure (nominally 1 atmosphere at sea level).
>> What??? The only claim to logic is that it's base ten. big whup... Different bases shouldn't scare computer people.
>> The imperial system is intuitive and based around things and sizes I understand:
The key phrase here is "based around things and sizes I understand". In my opinion the fact that metric is based on the decimal system by itself makes it superior and once you understand the basics it only becomes more so.
But why are we still cramming 360 degrees into one circle?
And why isn't the speed of light a unit of some sort?
Does our system of time measurement really have to revolve around the sun and so forth? Isn't that sun and moon business a bit antiquated in this day and age?
If we mostly had 11 fingers instead of 10, would the metric system still be as elegant as it is today?
I'm just saying.
Tradition, and the only alternative is radians which only seems to be used in electrical and mathematics fields.
>> And why isn't the speed of light a unit of some sort?
It's called c or C, as in E=MCsquared and is the speed of light in vacuum.
>> Does our system of time measurement really have to revolve around the sun and so forth? Isn't that sun and moon business a bit >> antiquated in this day and age?
What should we base it on? The orbital period of Uranus perhaps?
>> If we mostly had 11 fingers instead of 10, would the metric system still be as elegant as it is today?
Maybe it would be based on the number of fingers of one hand, so base 5 or 6. Better if we had 8 fingers so we could use octal.
seems strange to us because we are use to base 10. but many of us have gotten use to base 16 and can do math in it. base 11 would be the same.
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24 bit LCD Breakout Board now in. $24.99 has backlight driver and touch sensitive decoder.
If you have not already. Add yourself to the prophead map